What’s New in Microsoft Edge?
If you are a Microsoft 365 business subscriber, some efficiencies, integrations, and security options are added to the Edge browser when you are logged in that warrant another look at the tool. Built on the same engine that runs Google’s Chrome (Chromium), most of your Chrome extensions will work on Edge and it is easy to transfer bookmarks. What does Edge have to offer that would make it worth considering a switch from Chrome?
Getting Up to Speed on Edge
Edge’s early reputation was shaped by its troubled lineage, yet the move to a Chromium‑based foundation marked a clear turning point. Performance improved, compatibility issues largely disappeared, and Edge began to look less like a reluctant default and more like a purposeful alternative. Highlighted in previous articles including Microsoft Edge Browser – New and Improved and Browser Wars: What’s New in Chrome and Edge, enhanced features that leverage MS 365 make it especially useful to business subscribers. Some of the features include:
Vertical tabs: Moves tabs to the side to reduce tab overload and make many open tabs easier to scan and manage.
Enhanced PDF reader: Built-in tools to highlight, annotate, fill forms, read aloud, and validate digital signatures—reducing the need for separate PDF software.
Extension + data importing support: Works with most Chrome extensions (Chromium-based) and makes it easy to import bookmarks/favorites, passwords, and settings.
Edge for Business: Adds enterprise-focused controls like deployment options, Internet Explorer compatibility (legacy sites), and tighter alignment with identity/security management.
Privacy & security defaults: Includes tracking prevention, InPrivate browsing, and Microsoft Defender SmartScreen for phishing/malware protection.
Workspaces (shared workspaces): Creates collaborative browser spaces where teams can share tabs/links/resources for a project.
Edge sidebar / Microsoft 365 integration: Lets you keep tools like Outlook visible while browsing; search can surface web + Microsoft 365 content (emails/docs/chats) together.
Copilot Chat Enterprise (in Edge for Business): AI assistance positioned for work use, with commercial data protections.
Microsoft has announced they are retiring Collections. If you have been using the feature you can migrate Collections to OneNote. Collections: Add websites, or text selected from a webpage to a Collection. You can add notes about a particular element in a Collection or within the Collection as a whole. You can open all the pages in a Collection or send the Collection to Excel, OneNote, or Word. For research, Collections can be quite handy and without having to use a tool beyond your browser.
New Additions and Changes
Some new or refined features in Edge are worth familiarizing yourself with if you use it. Note that some new features, such as Passkeys and Copilot connectors, are only available for personal accounts and will not appear for MS 365 business logins. You can always toggle between a personal and work account in Edge by clicking on your avatar in the upper right corner and choosing a profile.
In a browser, managing tabs is a necessity. After spending 30 minutes in your browser, you may find you have opened many tabs, including websites and applications. Sometimes you accidentally close a tab. Other times, you have so many tabs open that you lose track of what is open. Many times, you wish you could open a whole lot of frequently used tabs all at once. Microsoft Edge has many tools to help manage tabs. Collections and Workspaces help you save and access research sessions and frequently used tabs. But there are more tab management features for per-session use, when you find yourself having dozens of tabs open and need to stay organized.
Tab Groups: in the upper left corner of the Edge browser next to your Favorites toolbar there is a small rectangular icon. If you have a lot of tabs open click this icon (or press ALT + SHIFT + P) to open the Tab groups feature. You can create a new tab group, color code it, move it to a new Window, add the grouped tabs to a new Collection and more. Drag the tabs you want to group into your new Tabs group. These groups save until you delete the tab group so you can access them any time.
Tab Search: if you are using vertical tabs, click on the arrow above the tabs you have open to see a menu of options, including showing you a list of open tabs and recently closed tabs. At the top of the list is a tab search. Tab search searches the titles of your open tabs, not the content within the tabs.
Organize Tabs: if you want to create tab groups with the help of AI click the arrow above your open tabs and move your mouse over the middle icon to click on “organize tabs”. Your open tabs will be organized in groups for you. You can edit these groupings and their names. Then save them to create a color coded and grouped set of tabs so you can minimize or open each group. This helps you more easily move between your open tabs. These automated tab groupings will also now be available through the Tabs Group button until you delete them. Drag and drop new tabs into Groups to keep them organized.
Split Screen: occasionally you want to have two websites or applications open side by side. This is easy to do in the Edge browser. Click on the three horizontal dots in the right side of the top toolbar and choose “Split Screen”. This will automatically push the open tab to the left. Other tabs you have will appear on the left so you can choose which one to arrange side by side. You can click on “Frequently Visited” if you don’t have a tab that you want already opened. At the top of each split screen is the three horizontal dots icon. You can swap screens, open links from one screen into the split screen, and more. If you like this feature and plan to use it a lot go into your settings – appearance – other appearance settings – toolbar and toggle on Split Screen so the icon always appears in your browser toolbar.
Edge Search bar: You can turn on a hovering search that floats on your desktop to access the Bing search engine even if you aren’t actively using the browser. A newer feature lets you drag or upload an image, or past an image link to do a visual search.
Workspaces: You can still create a workspace, but no longer share it. The workspace data was stored in OneDrive/SharePoint. With Edge version 144 and later the browser no longer supports sharing in workspaces. Workspace are still useful as a way to collect an active group of tabs and then go back to them at will. For instance, you can create a “research” workspace with all of your research oriented links open, or a “Billing Time” workspace with all of your links to time, billing, and accounting tools open. You could create a “professional development” workspace with your current news reading list and CLE tabs”. If you open a Workspace it will open in a new Window. When you are finished in the workspace simply close the Window.
Conclusion
Edge continues to evolve as a productivity‑oriented browser, particularly for users invested in the Microsoft ecosystem. With that foundation in mind, it is worth taking a fresh look at what has changed, what has improved, and which newer features meaningfully build on the original promise.